


Puppy Love

by ladyoneill



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Gen, Happy, Post-Canon, Puppies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 17:34:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6293482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyoneill/pseuds/ladyoneill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An adult now with a job and home, Willow looks for something she's wanted for a long time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Puppy Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [batyatoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/batyatoon/gifts).



> Ignores the comics, set in the future.

For three months Willow haunts the local humane society, playing with the puppies and walking the older dogs, and, while they're all adorable and needing good homes, none of them speak to her. Growing up, she always wanted a dog, but her parents gave her fish because they didn't want anything distracting her from her studies, and dogs needed attention and care, walking and cleaning up after. Fish needed daily feeding that took thirty seconds, and a tank cleaning once a month or so.

Willow kind of always resented her parents for the fish and ignoring her desire for a dog to lick her face and sleep at her feet. Truth be told, when Angel killed them, she really didn't miss them.

But, the desire for a dog has always lingered, and now that she has a good job, a nice apartment in a safe neighborhood with a shared, fenced garden at the back, she's made the decision to get one.

None of them have been the one for her, though.

Dressed casually in old jeans and a long sleeved green top with comfy Converses on her feet, she enters the shelter on a Saturday morning and checks in with the desk. They always need volunteers to play with the dogs and she tries to come at least once a week. She's enjoyed it so much, that, even after she finds the dog for her, she plans to continue to volunteer. Pinning on her volunteer name tag that lets people know they can ask her questions, she heads out to the back yard.

The shelter's in a nice, older part of town, located in a sprawling building, and they purposefully cultivated grass and bushes and even some flower beds to give the dogs a sense of home. It's fenced in so the dogs with no behavior issues can run free. Today there are several outside. The day is nice, the sun warm, and a couple of the older dogs are dozing on the patio while three puppies run around, chasing bugs and toys. Another volunteer is walking a dog on a leash, and a handful of people are interacting with a couple others.

One of the puppies, a poodle mix, yips at Willow and bats at her shoelace, making her laugh. Reaching down, she carefully scratches the soft head--she learned early on to approach the dogs slowly; some of them don't like being touched. As it scampers off, another puppy trots out of some tall grass with a stick in its mouth that's bigger than his or her body.

It's a black furball, sleek and adorable. A pug.

It plops down on its butt, stick dropping to the grass, and barks demandingly at her.

Play with me. 

And Willow falls in love.

End


End file.
